Support your child’s creativity through this two-week summer offering! Children will explore the magical nature of wool, our gift from the sheep, as they design and felt their very own wool slippers. Days will be spent washing and carding wool, collecting flowers and cutting vegetables to create dye baths, and observing the transformation of the fibers into a beautiful rainbow of natural hues. Each child will design and fashion an individual pair of felted wool slippers, and by the end of the two weeks everyone will have their own pair, hand-made to fit their own feet.

In addition, there will be ample time for circle, story, and puppet plays, as well as walks along our many acres of beautiful wooded trails and romps through the sprinkler in the play yard.

Children will enjoy healthy organic snacks made at Green Meadow and bring a picnic lunch from home each day.

This offering is led by Early Childhood Educator Nell Rowland and takes place at the Green Meadow Waldorf School Kindergarten Building. For more information or to register, please email Mrs. Rowland at nrowland@gmws.org. $750 for two-week program, includes snacks and all materials.

This New York Times article, published on May 16, 2015, details how the increasing push towards early academics is well-intentioned, but misguided. Children's potential might actually be hampered in the long run by academic instruction that doesn't match the child's development.

Per the experts, play based learning is the best approach for children under the age of 7 or 8. “Play is often perceived as immature behavior that doesn’t achieve anything,” says David Whitebread, a psychologist at Cambridge University who has studied the topic for decades. “But it’s essential to their development. They need to learn to persevere, to control attention, to control emotions. Kids learn these things through playing.”

Green Meadow students play an instrument from third through twelfth grades. This article highlights some of the neurological benefits. We know there are many other benefits as well, both tangible and intangible.

The Green Meadow robotics team, The PolyGnomes, traveled to the FTC World Championships from April 21-26 and left tied for 5th place, out of 4500 teams. We are so proud of their accomplishments, and grateful to their coaches, math teachers James Madsen and Lisa Krogh!